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Post by Karina Tidland on Apr 11, 2015 1:49:43 GMT -5
Pure bliss isn't normally masked, but a feeling worn from ones light in their eyes to the stride in their step. Karina embraced that elation this very early evening, nearly skipping every few steps at the prospect of a full weekend of freedom ahead. The closing bell had only just rang no more than forty five minutes before, releasing her from a closing section in Potions on animal exteriors uses in brews. All the spark she had needed, Karina had not bothered to even drop her school things back in the Ravenclaw tower, but instead pounded down on supper, snagging a slice of cake in a napkin to enjoy not too much later.
It was not straight to the lakes, however; a pit stop had been made at the Greenhouses. It was momentary, sidling into a rarely used one, snatching the biggest jar to be found, and slipping out before any mysterious plants acknowledged her disturbance. Hands full, cake and wand in one with the jar in the other, she half jogged to a high area on a very far edge of the black lake. She was a great distance from the castle now, the only occupants that would come around would not want to be interfered with either. Even still, no one bothered with an inquisitive young girl.
Now, Karina had scattered her possessions around and taken to laying upon her belly. She was at the edge where land met water, and her movements scattered rock and sand into the menacing watery depths. She was in a middle zone, not at the deepest, darkest part yet the murkiness did make her become more cautious. "Lumos!"
A distance of a few inches was more clearly visible, and this was all she sought. Fish swam towards the top, and she would only need one. Shrakes, a relatively harmless wizard-made created species, were part of the Potions topic today - not only could she experiment with their spines as an ingredient, Karina could imagine studying their interactions in other settings, with other animals, testing their other body parts, and eventually simply using it as spell target practice. However, she would settle with any fish that zipped by - Anglerfish, Lionfish, even a Plimpy.
Fortunately, despite all her childish excitement, she could pull together patience. As time passed, much of it, her eyes remained steadfast upon the lit ripples, but she was contemplating plans a mile a minute. What spell would she settle upon to catch the specimen? Would there be hashbrowns for breakfast tomorrow, or potato cuts for the fourth straight morning? Should she start on her Herbology research project first, or attempt the extra credit Care of Magical Creatures had provided? Would Mother still be tending to the Runespoor at the veterinary clinic by Summer vacation, or would Karina miss her opportunity for a multi-headed creature? All were of great importance, and each thought ran wild with possibilities.
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Post by Flynn Reid on Apr 11, 2015 11:30:54 GMT -5
Flynn Reid has always lived by the saying "I don't go looking for trouble, trouble usually finds me," however this was not usually the case. This evening was no different; bored of pretending to do his Herbology homework in the cozy Hufflepuff common room, Flynn instead decided that it was time for an adventure. Excusing himself from his group of friends by pretending he was off to the kitchens for a pre-dinner snack. Instead he hurried up the flight of stone steps and burst into the Entrance Hall. Seeing that the door leading out to the grounds was still open, he exited the castle and took a deep breath of fresh air. It was clear to him that spring had finally come to Hogwarts after a long, snowy winter, and no curfew was going to keep him inside.
Flynn strode towards the forest, cracking his knuckles to loosen the limbs before he got there. He was not so foolish as to wander into the Forbidden Forest as dusk approached, but climbing into the trees on the outskirts was an entirely different matter. Reaching one of the trees with the lowest branches, Flynn hoisted himself up and scrambled up through the branches like a monkey. When he reached the top, he took a moment to look out at the sky. The pinks, oranges and yellows of the setting sun were quite beautiful from this viewpoint. The moment passed and he crouched down, frowning in concentration. With a slight yelp he jumped to the next tree, and then the next one after that. He made his way towards the edge of the Black Lake, where he saw a couple entwined in the low bushes. He smirked, wondering what their reaction would be if they knew they were not as well hidden as they thought. Not wanting to linger, he moved to the next tree and spotted a girl close to his own age that he recognized in passing. A Ravenclaw or Gryffindor he thought. She was lying flat on her belly staring into the depths of the lake, which sparked his curiosity. He scooted over to a branch that reached further out, peering over to see what she was doing. He thought he could see several different types of fish swimming towards the dim light coming from her wand.
A sudden CRACK and Flynn found himself toppling down with the broken branch and landed on the ground with a hard thump. He winced as he sat up, thankful he had been closer to the ground than before. He heard the couple in the bushes rush out of their hiding place and knew that the girl had most definitely heard him. He got up quickly, hissing as his ankle protested. "Sorry, sorry I didn't mean to bother you," he said. His ankle screaming in protest, he sat back down, trying to remember the spell to bind his bones until he could get up to the hospital wing. When it didn't come to him, he took another look over at the girl. "Er, do you happen to remember the binding spell? My ankles broken I think and I can't seem to remember," he asked, trying to give her a friendly smile.
TAG - Karina Tidland
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Post by Karina Tidland on Apr 13, 2015 0:42:08 GMT -5
At some point Karina had reached out for the cake, any type of fish still missing. She picked at it slowly, savoring the rich sweetness. She suddenly had a most tantalizing idea to sneak to the kitchens after this and request an entire cake just for herself, a midnight snack for days. Added to the long queue of things to do, she licked remnants of the treat off her fingers and then smeared any remaining mess into the ground and on her already ragged pants. All the adventures did not allow for much looking pretty, although Karina was very unaware of that idea regardless.
There was one! She couldn't discern the species, but it was a fish nonetheless. Holding her breath for it to zoom back into sight, the fish reappeared seconds later. Karina had never quite decided on the spell to use, and frantically she exclaimed: "Petrificus Totalus!" It was too hurried; the fish darted out of sight and a large ruckus in the spot she pointed emanated from many depths below. She really hoped that nothing had been affected, but if so that it would float to the top. Nothing did, and a shrug followed. So did an on land commotion, and Karina grudgingly turned her gaze to the source. A slightly older boy sat there clearly in pain, to which her facial expression turned to bewilderment. He was quick to dismiss his disturbance, so Karina turned back away. The fish had returned!
This time she attempted a spell she hardly knew. "Incarcerous!" The result was very weak, instead of strong rope or cord, her wand emitted more of a strand that just barely caught the tail end of the fish. However, she was just as delighted - for her first time, she was pleased to produce anything. Tugging, the cord simply fell away and the fish zipped nervously off. The boy at this moment spoke back up, and Karina pushed up to sit and throw an observing glance at him. She grinned back and tapped her chin with the wand. Now, she knew of one spell, her mother as a vet had to be extremely competent with healing spells. Mother had even shown Karina how on a toad. Could she duplicate it? This Hufflepuff, she recognized him barely from the Great Hall, had been too trusting. She trotted over to him and immediately tapped his leg, intoning: "Ferula!"
It again was weak, but for a first time, it was a solid effort. Bandages wrapped around his leg firmly, but the splint part was loose and sloppy. "That's the best I know. We haven't studied healing spells yet in Charms, and I've never broken a bone."
Flynn Reid
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Post by Flynn Reid on Apr 17, 2015 11:42:31 GMT -5
Flynn held his breath as the girl bandaged up his ankle, then prodded it gently with his fingers. It was a little loose yes, but it would do until he could make it back to the castle. He made the executive decision right then to not move for a little bit and eased his back against a flat rock.
"Thank you, and consider yourself lucky you've never broken a bone; I've probably broken about 12 at this point," he said cheerfully. He strained his neck to look over her shoulder at the lake below. He could see the crumbs of something she'd probably brought with her from dinner earlier near the shoreline, and what looked like a string floating lazily in the water from her attempted Incarcerous spell. "That spell you just tried on the water, the Incarcerous spell? It's pretty tricky; we're learning it in Charms now, even though it's supposed to be a NEWT level spell," he said. He tried to remember what Professor van Houten had said about the wand movement, which he recalled needed to be very precise to have the desired effect. He dragged out his wand from his back pocket, and after breathing a sigh of relief that it hadn't broken in the fall, pointed it at another rock a few feet away.
"Incarcerous!" he said, jabbing his wand quickly at the rock. A cord shot out of his wand tip and wrapped itself around the rock. It didn't seem to be very tight, but the result was definitely much better than during the actual class earlier that week. He looked back at the girl and smiled. "It's all about the sharp jab of the wand according to van Houten," he told her, then motioned to another rock. "Why don't you try it again before trying to binding the water?" he said, adding the last bit in as a joke. He didn't really think she was trying to bind the water, but he wasn't quite sure exactly what she was doing.
TAG - Karina Tidland
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Post by Karina Tidland on May 28, 2015 16:44:16 GMT -5
Karina grimaced at his cheerful proclamation; breaking bones was a line in the sand for her foolish acts, a consequence too uncomfortable and putting her out of shenanigans for an extended period of time. As Flynn got his wand out, she gave an ever so slight tilt of her head. If he could actually help her get the technique steady, she may have a creature on her bedside table in only some time. Much of the time antics were performed on largely luck and determination, a smaller amount natural skill. NEWT or not, she would never let that hold her back, only the time and energy it took. Supposedly that's how many witches and wizards became seriously injured, but somehow that seemed less tangible than a broken bone.
Flynn was making to perform the movements and incantation, so she flopped belly-side upon the grass. She reached a few fingers out to flick the cord produced; slack, yet strong threads that almost balance out the deficiency. "Sharp jab..." Karina trailed off in a murmur, pushing her body weight onto her left arm, feeling small pebbles dig in. She stuck her right arm in the direction of his bounded rock, performing the movement several times over, a few too forcefully, finding it difficult not to. She threw him a look of mixed amusement and 'are you kidding me?' at his little joke of binding water. "Right... Sharp jab..." She repeated again, followed by one more deliberate practice movement, then, "Incarcerous!"
More than a strand this time, yet less than Flynn's cord, a thin strand of twine appeared. It shot out halfway, then unfurled into a mess of strands upon the ground. Though delighted, Karina narrowed her eyes in concentration with a dismissive light sigh. Nearly immediately, she did not just try it once, but four times more until it at last, still twine, reached the rock. If anything, she believed, or wished to, that her knot was tighter than the boy had done.
Beaming sideways at Flynn, her excitement and energy suddenly increasing,"Like that, yeah? Something, right? You think it could snag a small fish?" Scurrying back over to the bank, she leveled herself with the water again, though at an angle this time as to not shut Flynn out of the process or conversation. She began repeating the sharp jab over and over again, and with one last beaming look at the boy, she returned wide eyes set upon the rippling lake.
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Post by Flynn Reid on Jun 7, 2015 10:02:47 GMT -5
Flynn laughed jovially and clapped his hands together when Karina successfully performed the spell. Sure, it had some work to do, but the spell she was performing was taught at fifth year and above, and she was certainly younger than him. He imagined she must be a third year, maybe fourth, but she was also a Ravenclaw and he wasn't entirely surprised she was trying to master spells above her year."That was quite excellent! The old saying is always 'practice makes perfect' and that is clearly paying off for you," he told her excitedly. He scooted himself over and picked up the last piece of twine that she had shoot out of her wand and inspected it. While it wasn't quite as thick as the one his wand had produced, it certainly was a huge improvement over her first attempt before he had fallen out of the tree.
"I think it's worth a go, and if it doesn't work I can always help. This was one of the spells I actually caught onto quickly for whatever reason," he told her, half-lying about the last part. He knew why he had caught onto the spell quickly as he had found it incredibly useful for a few of the pranks he liked to play on his fellow classmates. He felt it best not to reveal that now however. Taking great care of his injured leg, he scooted down towards the shore so he could see his reflection in the surprisingly clear water. He could see the fish she was talking about swimming around lazily just a foot or two into the depths, but he knew the second that twine shot out at them they'd move much faster than expected. "Say out of curiosity, why do you want to catch a fish? Do you not like the food up in the Great Hall?" he asked her. He couldn't fathom the idea of anyone not liking the food here, but he supposed it was always possible.
TAG - Karina Tidland
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Post by Karina Tidland on Jun 18, 2015 18:00:43 GMT -5
Karina stared until her eyes watered, blinking fast to clear them. Their spot was now partially shaded, forcing her to once again light her wand. A small yet chilly breeze had appeared, spreading a few leaves around the vicinity. She nearly got distracted by one go adrift upon the lake, and once more when Flynn spoke. It took a full minute for her to respond, however, as just then opportunity struck. She exclaimed the incantation, the rope caught a fish strongly, yet the moment it touched the fish moved at an alarming rate that it managed to slip out. Sighing lightly, she took a moment to rub her eyes. Once returned to position, she answered Flynn with only one quick glance throughout.
"That is silly; eat these fish? First years pee in here, seventh years far worse." Karina shook her head, feeling his question was more so mocking than curious. She didn't care to explain her endeavors, he may inquire why anyone would want to independently study. One brief thought marked her naivety and Ravenclaw spirit: he likely didn't take his education seriously, how would he understand? Still, he had helped her nail this spell. "The food is delicious, I only wish it were open endlessly. No, I would like one of these fish for experimentation. There is so much untapped potential of magical creatures," and here her tone became indignant. "Everyone thinks that Scamander is the end all, be all. That is ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe I'm going to find a cure for spattergoit anytime soon, but a bit of studying may reveal some quirk," Karina then grinned devilishly, adding, "Besides, creeping out some of these girls is fun." She did not include pranking as a possibility. At that, she shot out another rope, enclosed a fish tightly, and began to pull...
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Post by Flynn Reid on Jun 26, 2015 11:47:32 GMT -5
Flynn laughed as she quickly negated his comment about eating the fish from the lake. "That's definitely fair, though I'd hope that the first years would be better about peeing in the lake; I'd be more concerned about the older students drinking too much fire whiskey," he said jokingly. He watched on as she attempted once to catch the fish and it slipped away. "You almost had it! One more go and I think it'll be perfect," he exclaimed. He adjusted himself, trying hard not to move his injured leg. He winced slightly as he felt a painful twinge shoot up his leg and he stopped moving. Hopefully when he finally decided to go back up to the castle for the night his leg will decide to behave better. He glanced around, looking for a stick that might be able to support his height to walk. After a few moments, he spotted the perfect stick and pulled out his wand. "Accio!" he proclaimed and grabbed the stick before it could hit him in the face. He leaned on it heavily as he stood up and tested his leg. It still hurt but the stick certainly was helping. He hobbled closer over to the water and sat down hard, sliding his leg out in front of him.
"So you really don't seem to like Newt Scamander? Is it mostly because he's really the only one out there who write about mythical creatures or something?" he asked her, scratching his nose lightly. She didn't have the time to answer, as another fish got caught in her rope. He leaned forward eagerly, waiting to see if the fish will hold on this time.
TAG Karina Tidland
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Post by Karina Tidland on Aug 17, 2015 18:57:21 GMT -5
Karina felt warmth inside as he encouraged her endeavor; it was a satisfying boost for another to take interest and push her in her goal. Many often judged and ridiculed others ambitions, but Flynn took a kind interest and sought to understand, not use against her. She knew he was passing his time until the leg felt more manageable to walk on, yet nevertheless the evening was being passed better than anticipated. She registered his wincing and hobbling, and she mentally added it as the next task at hand; he was not making it across the grounds, through the hall, and up four flights of stairs on his own.
However, he kept adding to the pile of topics, asking her a most pertinent question at the moment of casting rope. She knew instantly it was a catch, and was quick to snag the open jar to fill with water - why had she not done so sooner? Excitement, most likely. "An Anglerfish, and a male at that!" Karina beamed, sticking the ugly, creepy and very angry creature into its new, temporary home. She burned a small hole into the lid for air flow, then tightly sealed it. She would be extra careful walking around to avoid the slish and slosh of water seeping out. "I just saved this guys life, honestly, do you know much about this creature? Anyways, I'm sure there is a lot he can teach me..." Karina trailed off, cautious with sticking the jar in her bag and standing up to stretch.
"Scamander is fantastic, let's not get that wrong, but yes, more people need to take an interest in the world and not leave it up to one guy to do all the research. He can't discover every billywig and half-creature out there, you know?" Her tone was momentarily flustered, and then she turned stern. "It's about time you get yourself looked at, it's silly enough you didn't start up the hill a half hour ago. Honestly, Flynn..." She hesitated, usually more of a solo witch, and not entirely relishing the thought of aiding someone else. She just wanted to get her new friend up to the tower undetected, but Flynn had aided and encouraged her, and she was taught her manners and respect. She put up a finger to indicate giving her a minute, which she used fully up to adjust her bag in a secure way, straighten out her clothes, and tighten her hair back. Then, with an extended arm, she waited for him to relent, accept help, and begin their way to the Hospital Wing.
Flynn Reid
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Post by Flynn Reid on Aug 29, 2015 10:24:51 GMT -5
Flynn made a face, then sighed. Karina was probably right; he was sure under the rough bandages that his ankle was probably turning a delicate shade of purple or blue at this point. Best to have the Hospital Wing take a look at it and straighten it out before he had to spend the night there. He gratefully accepted her hand and with the help of his stick he pulled himself up with a small grunt. "I suppose I should probably steer clear of climbing trees for awhile eh?" he said with a chuckle. It wasn't like there was much of a season for climbing left anyway; even today he could feel a cooler breeze fluttering the leaves by the lake. Fall was coming swiftly, and soon after that winter would be here. He'd have to be a crazy fool to try and climb during those seasons.
"Is that your goal in life? To become as famous as Newt Scamander in the same field? Or perhaps the fame and fortune isn't your goal but moreso to learn as much as possible about the creatures we share this world with and write an even bigger book than 'Fantastic Beasts'?" he asked her as they began the slow and steady trek back up to the castle. He glanced over at her quickly then looked ahead. The truth was he was envious of her; she knew what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, and he just was looking for the next time Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes released a new product. Still, he was only fifteen and had another year to go before he needed to seriously consider his career options. "You're lucky you know - most people hardly know what they want to do by the time they graduate here no less before their OWL year. I certainly don't know what I want to do with my life yet," he told her.
TAG - Karina Tidland
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Post by Karina Tidland on Sept 17, 2015 19:07:50 GMT -5
"Not unless your life relies on it for the next few weeks, fool," Karina replied in an amused tone. She took Flynn as the type to disregard Healer's orders if some boyish excitement came along, likely more of a boundary pusher than herself. Only rule breaking with relatively little pain were worth it for herself. His next series of questions threw him off; they took interest in her life, and they were big enough to make her question her own self. Karina's mindset was still so innocent and in the moment she often didn't think of her interests on a greater scale. However, she knew instantly that he had to be right, there was no other path she would possibly pursue. Still, her ideas were broad, encompassing the entire world full of magical creatures, that it would be difficult to figure out how to settle down on one area at a time. She knew some adult would tell her that would come with age.
Before she could utter a response, Flynn was going on about how lucky she was. She felt a bit overwhelmed by the analyzing of her passion, that for a few moments she focused on where she was placing her feet up the grounds. After all, she was a thirteen year old female dragging a fifteen year old boy a very long way, it was a decent excuse. "I guess I never realized I knew what I wanted to do... It's just a huge part of me, and I never questioned it. Yes, though, magical creatures, or some sort of naturalistic path, is the only direction worth taking for myself. I just want to know more..." Karina trailed off for a moment, Flynn was certainly making her wonder about all this. "You don't? Everyone else doesn't? You must have some passion!" She felt most people were substantially dimwitted, but only because they weren't unlocking their true aspirations. If they only recognized and honed their skills, but most of them chose not to care. She hoped that Flynn did, for she could respect him a whole lot more.
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